Please comment and tell us what you think :) This article was sent to me from an really awesome friend who took the time to send it out so please read. Thank you Dart for posting this:
Marissa Hope
A former US Army Captain who worked and trained with IDF officers who attend the US Armor School at Fort Knox Kentucky longs to live in Israel. In all outward appearance, kappa and zit zit, he is Jewish down to the bones. Yet present policy prevents him from making Aliyah because he is not just Jewish, but Messianic also.
The negative opinion of the Orthodox is that if Messianics make Aliyah, they will somehow convert all Israel to their faith. Thousands of Messianic Jews in America say that is not so. Joel responds to this claim: “I am Jewish, we teach all Christians who come to us to keep Shabbat service that they are grafted into the family of Israel by adoption, that they must abandon the Christian doctrine and live kosher”.
Millions in the United States, Gentiles, are leaving the Christian churches and joining into to Messianic groups all across the country. The old doctrine of using the Greek name is dropping off from these groups, and they use Yeshua and Yahshua to describe their messiah. “I was raised a Christian, yet when I started to read the Brit Chadasha, I saw where it speaks of the first Gentiles keeping Sabbath that believed on Yeshua, I lost my blinders of the Christian doctrine, and saw where the new testament speaks of a Jewish faith, not a Roman one” one Messianic Rabbi reported.
All over the world, quoting Zechariah Chapter 3, claiming this is the name of Messiah in Tenach, Messianic Jews are forming groups where both Jew and Gentile pray and read Torah together. So why are there so many things changing in Israel and not acceptance of the Messianic for Aliyah?
One might site that the Catholic and Christians had such indifference in Europe during the holocaust, that still today many wounds remain separating what is accepted by the Hebrew faith and those who appear to be “Jews for Jesus”. Many Messianic Jews claim now that they are not Christians or Christian Jews, but have formed a completely new faith, one that believes that the Messiah came, his message was polluted by Roman Christian doctrine, and that this new religion is prophesied as the restoration of the name of HaShem to the Jewish people in the days before Messiah comes to
Israel. In every point, many of these Messianic Jews are living Jewish.
Daniel served in the gulf war, and told of how he had every man write the name of HaShem inside his helmet liner in Hebrew before they went into battle: “If I tell you I am a Messianic Jew, you will ask me if you are Jewish if I think Jesus was the Messiah, I would have to say that is not his name, that is Greek and he was Jewish, having the same name as Joshua the son
of Nun, or Yahshua. Since the New Testament says there is only one name by which all must be saved, then I would tell you the name of HaShem is in the Messiah’s name, so what is there to convert?”
Many Messianics have relatives who have made Aliyah and come to visit Israel or just come on Hebrew Roots tours like those held by Christian Evangelist Ken Gaub which help contribute to the tourism industry in Israel.
Michael Rood ministries also has a growing viewership on YouTube and online and has tours of Messianic Jews who come to Israel. “With the present political mood in the US, many Orthodox Jews are changing their political support from the democrats to the conservatives which support Israel. The present DC policy of embracing Muslim political ideals is scaring many, both Orthodox and Messianic.”
With all the contributing factors, faith, politics, and the sincere love these people have for Israel and the Jewish people, the desire of many to come to live in Israel might be revisited by more moderate leaders in the future. An unnamed IDF spokesman said that some view Messianic Jews as a security risk and resist any change in policy thinking that Messianics may be influenced by Christians who might hold alliances that secretly work against Israel. Yet with many of these Jews who have served in the US Armed forces, who have held top-secret clearances, one might regard the fact that their loyalty to Israel is stronger than the loyalty they hold for the United States.
In spite of the present policies against Messianic Jews making Aliyah, many of these new Hebrew Roots Movement followers say that they will stand with Israel, and if called on, fight with Israel against all enemies, even the United States if necessary.
Many of these former US Officers site the story of How Israel became a nation with the help of the US Officer and West Point graduate David Daniel
"Mickey" Marcus. In January 1948, "Michael Stone" arrived in Tel Aviv to assume command of the Israeli forces and take on an impossible
situation. When the Jewish section of Jerusalem was about to fall, Marcus ordered the construction of a road to bring men and equipment to break the Arab siege just days before the United Nations negotiated a cease fire. Israel
had withstood the Arab assault. Prime Minister Ben Gurion named Mickey Marcus Lieutenant General, the first general in the army of Israel in nearly two thousand years. Though he died in a tragic mistaken shooting only hours before the negotiated cease fire, General Marcus proved the loyalty and
commitment that Americans like these Messianic have for Israel.
With the present Islamitization of many inner-city communities in the United States straining the patients of Jews, Evangelicals who support Israel,
and Messianics, the call and requests for Aliyah will no doubt rise in the
coming months as the Obama administration continues to appease the radical terrorists and embrace his own childhood Muslim roots.
Joel Chernoff whose father Martian Chernoff founded the Messianic movement in the United State and Canada, works with the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) that has many programs to support Israel and Orthodox Jewish causes. The MJAA Joseph Project supplies much-needed aid to Israel and its ever-increasing population of immigrants and needy families living below the poverty line. Organizations like the MJAA and other Jewish Messianic groups stress the importance to “Bless Israel”
because they believe it is the Biblical commandment for all people. In light of
all the recent political fights for the hearts and minds of public opinion, perhaps now would be a good time for Israeli lawmakers to revisit the official
law of return. The official Law of Return states:
Definition
4B. For the purposes of this Law, "Jew" means a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion."[1]
So the real question here is not about the loyalty of these prospective immigrants or where their political loyalties are; The real question is one of true religious freedom for the thousands of Messianics who keep the Sabbath, and desire to become citizens of Israel. It is ironic that these Messianic Jews in the United States and Canada are shunned by many Christian groups also. The majority of Christian denominations hold to the doctrine of the “Judaizers” which was formed in the Nazi Catholic era as the official position and doctrine of the “Church”. This religious doctrine claims that the Jews who convert to Christ need not keep Sabbath anymore and that the Christian doctrine of Grace sets people free from keeping the Torah.
So for millions of Messianic Jews, and Gentile converts, they feel just as isolated by Anti-Semitism and hate because of their love of the Law of HaShem and the state of Israel. I am sure that when the state of Israel
accepts Messianic Jews as Jewish under the Law of Return, that the Consul in the United States will be flooded with new applications. As long as Messianics are looked on as ‘another religion’, they will continue to sit by the rivers of Babylon and long for home.
[1]http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1950_1959/Law+of+Return+5710-1... By: Dr. Daniel Merrick is a Messianic Jew and publisher of the McKean Enterprise
Newspaper.
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